A pink scarf goes fluttering across the room from inside the closet door. It lands without fanfare near a pile of other clothes: a black satin skirt, a sleeveless blue blouse made from crushed velvet, Alina's suit from the Labazaar, and a frankly terrifying amount of jewelry. Rita sits on the bed quietly, watching the pile grow while she rests her chin on her hand and flicks her tail back and forth with a quiet fwump fwump whenever it hits the mattress. She leans slightly to one side to dodge an errant ball of socks.

"Aha!" Alina cheers.

With a cheer and a tiny, triumphant hop, the Chief of O... the [i]Princess of Illumina[/i] emerges back into the room holding a pair of delicately strappy high heeled shoes with open toes. She bounds gleefully over to the bed in just three steps and flops down between Rita and the, erm, the discard pile. 

"Finally! I was beginning to worry I wasn't going to be able to make this work!"

She grins, but Rita doesn't return the favor. Well, she does, she [i]smiles.[/i] But it's a weird, 'hey there it's ok, I'm here for you' kind of smile, and not the sort of mischief-kitten look Alina was expecting. Her smile falls away to a surprised huff, and she pops back up onto her feet with graceful ease. 

"So, um!" she sos and ums, "I've been thinking. When this is all... wow, we're really doing it, huh? So when we, I mean if we, that is, I was wondering..."

"Hm?"

"Well, you know! I mean!" Alina's pacing back and forth while she talks now. The shoes are in a constant state of swapping back and forth between her hands, "It's just. No, it's stupid of me to even ask. Of course you'll be going home. Of course you will. You have to. I would be mad if you didn't. You haven't seen your father or your sister since you left, and your mother just at the Gala. Of course you'll go back. Your island needs you."

Alina's halfway back to the closet before she realizes the shoes are already in her hands. She pivots on her toes and glides over to a porthole instead only to glimpse snow, swallow nervously, and double back to the middle of the room. Her smile is borderline manic. 

"Because you know, I mean I know you know, but I... can't come with you. Illumina is in shambles right now. And you all stopped me from... I mean, I had to put the Caduceus down before I was able to fix anything. So it's back to doing everything the old fashioned way. It's a shame I'm such a mess with glasswork, huh? Maybe Freesia should be Princess-Promised, hahaha."

She's got one shoe in each hand now, and she's swinging them back and forth as she sways from side to side with very precise and fluid awkwardness. Her smile isn't quite making it all the way to her eyes. She reaches up and almost smacks her head on a heel trying to touch one of them. They still feel too soft. They still don't feel real. Stupid. It's stupid to feel guilty about having her eyes back. She tries again at smiling, maximum effort this time. 

"What's he even got left, anyway? We stopped him from getting the Caduceus. We've won over or captured all of his daughters. I bet he'll have to burn through whatever treasures he's got left just to [i]reach[/i] Ourania! And, you know, besides... I've got Gold now. I'm ready. This time I'm ready for him. It won't be like before. This time it's really it. We're going to do it. That's why I've been thinking about... you know, this is it. We're doing it. Stopping Oberon is the last job for our team up. Beating him's the last thing that you and I and Kazelia and Adila get to do together."

Alina turns her back to the bed and prances over to a mannequin set up in the corner of the room. She sets the shoes down carefully underneath it. After a moment she bends down again to fiddle with them, making tiny adjustments until she's satisfied. She takes a couple of steps back and nods to herself. She's set the shoes down under a beautiful white silk dress laced with gold trim and chains looping about little diamond starburst patterns. Almost like snowflakes. But not. Not. They're stars. The hem of the dress reaches down to shins, with a long slit cup all the way up the right side to the top of her thigh. The waist cinches tight with a ruffled sash, the same color white, while a pretty golden ribbon is tied into a bow just underneath the bust, where it will lift and draw attention to some... often forgotten features. Sparkling petal sleeves trail all the way down to the elbows, and around the neck there's a simple glass chain made with tiny links in the traditional seven colors. 

That's the only splash of color in the whole ensemble. This is, after all, a dress for attending a wedding. Illuminan guests always wore white, the joining of all the colors as one, to symbolize hope for the lucky couple. The true colors were always left to the betrothed. It was like gifting them a rainbow. 

"No, no, these shoes don't work at all! Who stocked this stupid ship, anyway?"

She sighs and tosses them carelessly into the pile, already halfway back to the closet. For some reason, this felt really important to get right. Every detail has to be perfect. From now until the very last moment.